Batman: Gotham Guardian
This is the first movie in the Dark Guardian Batman reboot series. It was released on July 27, 2013. It recieved great critical reception, with a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. The cast includes Sam Worthington as Batman, Paul Bettany as Joker, Doug Jones as Scarecrow, and Josh Lucas as Two-Face. It was written by Eben Weiss, Frank Miller, and Ed Brubaker, and directed by Martin Scorsese. Cast *'Sam Worthington' as Batman/Bruce Wayne, his parents were killed when he was twelve years old. As an adult, he trained to become a crimefighter to ensure that no child in Gotham would endure what he had to. He entrusts his identity with Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox, and works with Jim Gordon. *'Paul Bettany '''as' Joker, a robber who worked for Sal Maroni. To avoid being caught by Batman, he jumps into a vat of chemicals which disfigure him. He becomes the Joker and causes the creation of Scarecrow (with Crane's help) and Two-Face (somewhat indirectly). He is the main antagonist. *'''Doug Jones as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, 'a respected psychologist that Bruce trains under when he is training to become Batman. He later had Joker fake his (Crane's) death so that he could become Scarecrow without any suspicion. Him and Joker are on-and-off partners throughout the movie. He is the secondary antagonist. *'Josh Lucas '''as '''Two-Face/Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne's childhood friend, who is scarred by a bullet shot by Sal Maroni and becomes the criminal, Two-Face. He is the tertiary antagonist. *'Gary Sinise' as Jim Gordon, an honest member of the police force who is partnered with Renee Montoya and Arnold Flass. He is a good friend to both Bruce Wayne and Batman, but doesn't know that they're the same person. *'Bill Nighy' as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's loyal butler and one of only two people who knows Batman's secret identity. *'Denzel Washington' as Lucius Fox, the head of Wayne Enterprises and one of two men that knows Batman's identity. *'Rosario Dawson '''as '''Renee Montoya', Gordon's partner on the force. *'Leslie Bibb' as Vicki Vale, a reporter and Bruce Wayne's former girlfriend. They get back together after he saves her from Arnold Flass. *'Patrick Warburton' as Arnold Flass, a corrupt police officer on Maroni's payroll. *'Andy Garcia' as Salvatore Maroni, a major crime boss in Gotham. *'Sigourney Weaver '''as' Leslie Thompkins,' a close friend of Thomas Wayne's, and one of Batman's allies. *'Gerard Butler''' as Joe Chill, the man who murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne. *'Jennifer Anniston' as Martha Wayne, Bruce Wayne's mother who was killed when he was 12 years old. *'Billy Crudup' as Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father who was killed when he was 12 years old. *'Kevin James' as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, 'Two-Face's henchmen and minor antagonists. Dee represents Two-Face's good side, while Dum represents his bad side. *'Jack Nicholson as Gillian B. Loeb, the corrupt police comissioner. *'Matthew Perry' as Jeremiah Arkham, the sarcastic warden of Arkham Asylum. *'Steve Buscemi' as Kirk Langstrom, a kind psychologist at Arkham Asylum. *'Liev Schreiber '''as '''Garfield Lynns', an arsonist and Batman's first enemy. *'Nicole Kidman' as Sarah Essen, Harvey Dent's successor as District Attorney. It is hinted that she is attracted to Jim Gordon. *'Bruce Timm' as Hamilton Hill, 'the mayor of Gotham City. This version is not corrupt. *'Victor Garber as Carmine Falcone, the number two crime boss in Gotham. Although he is only seen in a post-credit scene, he will be a main villain in the sequel. *'Chow Yun-Fat '''as '''Kirigi', a martial arts master whom Bruce trains under. He later betrays Bruce. Although he is a minor character, he plays an essential role in the series. Plot The Theatre For his 12th birthday, Bruce Wayne goes to see a horror film, ''Clayface, ''along with his parents and his best friend, Harvey Dent. When they leave the theater, Bruce persuades his parents to go through a back alley, so he can show them something. In the alley, a mugger attempts to grab Martha's pearls, but Thomas breaks his hand. The mugger shoots him, and Martha reluctlantly gives the mugger her pearls. He says "Thanks", and then shoots Martha, anyway. Bruce starts screaming "Nooooo!". Harvey tries to comfort Bruce, but Bruce punches him in the face. He immediately apologizes, and Harvey forgives him. They run back to Wayne Manor, and Harvey calls his mom to tell her what happened, and to come pick him up. Unfortunately, his abusive dad, James, picks him up. He makes Harvey promise not to hang out with Bruce Wayne anymore, and beats Harvey up when he says "No, Bruce is my best friend." Bruce runs to his proom, and starts crying because he thinks it's his fault his parents died. Bruce vows to make sure no other child in Gotham will suffer like he did. At their funeral, he meets Leslie Thompkins, who was a mother figure to Thomas. She promises to help Bruce in any way she can. Training At the age of 18, Bruce gets accepted into the elite Gotham University. He studies forensics under Harvey Harris, psychology under Dr. Jonathan Crane, as well as other courses. Crane, a world-renowned psychologist known for rehibilitating the toughest criminals at Arkham Asylum, sees that Bruce is excelling in his class. He offers Bruce a spot as his intern at Arkham Asylum. Bruce accepts the offer and helps Crane rehibilitate some of Gotham's toughest cases. In his free time, Bruce takes boxing lessons from Ted Grant and his friend, Al Pratt. Meanwhile, Bruce meets a photojournalism student named Vicki Vale, who Bruce is instantly attracted to. They date for 2 years, but Bruce is forced to end the relationship because he must continue his training overseas. He flies to Paris, where he trains under Henri Ducard, a former cop. He also trains under the world-renowned escape artist Zatara, and has a brief affair with his daughter Zatanna. After 2 years, Bruce discovers that Ducard secretly works as an enforcer for criminals, and leaves him in disgust. He then flies to Asia, and spends 11 years training under the world's finest martial arts teachers. One of his teachers, Kirigi, ends up betraying him, and Bruce is forced to flee to Kenya by boat. On the boat, the mast collapses and Bruce and another man hold it up while the others get out of the way. (This scene again plays in Man of Tomorrow, revealing the man to be Superman). In Kenya, he trains with an African man named Dom and an American named Mike Maxwell for six months before returning to Gotham City. The Return/Inspiration/Birth of the Bat Bruce has finished his training and comes home to Gotham City. However, he isn't the only importnt person coming to Gotham. A cop named Jim Gordon transfers to Gotham from Chicago. He goes to the police station, and meets Comissioner "Gil" Loeb, who partners him up with Arnold Flass and Renee Montoya (who is often beaten by Flass but doesn't report it because she knows nothing will be done about it.). Meanwhile, Bruce celebrates his "return from the dead" with a nice party at Wayne Manor. He drinks a little bit too much, and wanders off into his bedroom. In his bedroom, the drunken Bruce finds an area of the floor a little bit lower than the other parts. He jumps on it, and falls into a tunnel (the fall brings him back to his senses). He walks through ,the tunnel and discovers that it leads to a much larger cave, which bats swarm out of. This causes him to remeber his childhood fear of bats, and inspires him to create a bat-like armor for his war on crime. The next day, Bruce goes to Wayne Enterprises to meet with Lucius Fox (the CEO and a family friend). He asks Lucius what types of protective armors the company has in stock. Lucius takes him to the Weapons department, and shows him different prototypes for armors. Bruce picks out a Kevlar-reinforced suit with retractable nylon wings., and when Lucius asks what the suit is for, Bruce just replied "You'll see." He made the tweaks on the design at home so that it looked like a bat. The Villains' Birth One night, Bruce is testing the wings on the suit. As he flies over the city, he notices a burning building. He helps rescue almost all of the civilians, but when he is going back in to save the last group, he is knocked over by the arsonist, Garfield Lynns. After a long fight, Bruce knocks Lynns out. He drags him to GCPD headquarters, nd places him on a searchlight, creating a bat-shape. The next day, the Gotham Gazette published an article on the mysterious "Bat-Man." Bruce comments that he likes the name. Lucius reads th article and, knowingly, smiles. Across town, Sal Maroni is reading the article. He is furious about what the "Bat-Man" could do to his empire. He orders his best hitman, Jackson, to set up a trap at Ace Chemical Processing Plant that will get rid of Batman for good. Jackson agrees, and the next night, he and his thugs break into the chemical plant.Batman breaks in through a hole in the roof, and intercepts the robbers. He dispatches all but Jackson, whom he interrogates. When the robber says nothing, Batman attempts to punch him. Jackson dodges it, but while he is moving away, he smashes into the railing, and falls over it into a vat of chemicals. He later crawls out of a sewer pipe only to find Batman, Jim Gordon, and Renee Montoya (who is pointing at the robber with a gun) waiting for him. Jackson agrees to help set up a sting against Sal Maroni so that his sentence will be shortened. The sting is successful and Sal is arrested. The course of the next six months is shown, with Jackson being observed by Dr. Crane in Arkham, Vicki being appointed the official Batman reporter, and Batman taking down more criminals, all of which bear resemblance to his second-string foes ( Film Freak, Cornelius Stirk, Amygdala, Cavalier). Then, in court, Sal gets angry at Jackson for betraying him, and attempts to shoot him, but Jackson deflects the bullet, and it hits a ceiling light. The burning debris hits Harvey, just as Batman jumps in front of him, so it only scars one side of Harvey's face. In the ensuing chaos, Jackson escapes and Maroni is killed, while Harvey is taken to the hospital. Batman also gets a cut running from below his nose to his chin. The Plan The next day, Jonathan Crane is shown talking to Bruce about Jackson at Arkham. We then see Bruce leave and suit up as Batman to stop a robbery. We then see Jon Crane leaving work when his car explodes. Batman finds out and rushes to Arkham to save Crane, but arrives just as Crane dies. Bruce Wayne attends his funeral, and speaks at it. You can see a sillhouette watching the affair from above a building. It is shown to be Crane himself wearing a mask similar to the Scarecrow one. He says "Phase One is completed." into a phone. The man on the other end is Joker (whose disfigured face is revealed for the first time in this scene), who just grins and quietly laughs. After the funeral, Bruce becomes depressed because he didn't save Crane. Alfred attempts to console him, but Bruce stops being Batman. The next day, Arnold Flass is fired. Flass goes to a bar, where he finds Joker, who makes him an offer. Ultimatum Bruce is meeting with Lucius when he gets a call saying that Vicki Vale Trivia *Zatara, Wildcat, and golden age Atom appear in this movie sans superhero identities. They Gallery Critical Reception The film recieved great critical reception. It recieved an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a weighted average score of 8.5/10 on Metacritic. Critics lauded Sam's performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman, saying that "much like Michael Keaton, he delivered an unexpectedly great performance as the Dark Knight.", praised Paul Bettany's performance, stating that "He does Heath Ledger justice in his performance as the Joker.", and said "Doug Jones was brilliant. The previously not well known actor has been boosted into fame for his amazing portrayal here." The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Doug Jones), and Best Adapted Screenplay. Category:Movies Category:PG-13 Category:Dr. Nygma Batman franchise Category:Nygma Universe